Kaetlyn Osmond ended CanadaB次元官网网址檚 lengthy drought at the world figure skating championships.
The 22-year-old from Marystown, N.L., won the womenB次元官网网址檚 singles crown Friday, scoring 150.50 points for her Black Swan routine to finish with 223.23 points overall. Osmond stood fourth following the short program Wednesday.
B次元官网网址漈his feels unbelievable for me,B次元官网网址� said Osmond. B次元官网网址滲eing world champion is something I never expected.
B次元官网网址淚 was fighting to skate clean and fighting to hit the podium.B次元官网网址�
Osmond, a bronze medallist at last monthB次元官网网址檚 Winter Games in South Korea, became the first Canadian woman to win gold at the world championship since Karen Magnussen in 1973.
READ MORE:
She is the fourth Canadian woman to ever win a world title. Petra Burka took gold in 1965 and Barbara Ann Scott registered consecutive wins in 1947 and 1948.
B次元官网网址滳anada has such a strong history of competitors in all disciplines,B次元官网网址� she said. B次元官网网址滼ust that gold medal was always a fight for the ladies. Hopefully now weB次元官网网址檒l be able to be champions a lot more.B次元官网网址�
OsmondB次元官网网址檚 jammed packed routine opened with two combos, a triple flip - triple toe and double Axel-triple toe. Those were followed by a triple Lutz, triple loop, triple flip, triple Salchow-double toe-double loop combo and another double Axel.
B次元官网网址滻t took a lot of mental focus today to do that, itB次元官网网址檚 been a really long year,B次元官网网址� said Osmond. B次元官网网址滻 wanted to show that my bronze at the Olympics wasnB次元官网网址檛 a fluke.B次元官网网址�
JapanB次元官网网址檚 Wakaba Higuchi was second at 210.90 with compatriot Satoko Miyahara finishing third at 210.08. Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., was seventh.
Osmond won gold with a nearly perfect performance. But Olympic champion Alina Zagitova fell three times and crowd favourite Carolina Kostner turned in a lacklustre skate B次元官网网址� both tumbling completely off the podium.
She hit seven triples with only a minor deduction for stepping out of a combination jump. That seemingly left the door open to either Kostner, who had an eight-point lead after the short program, and the young Russian jumping genius, Zagitova, to battle for the title.
But Zagitova fell on a straight lutz, missing a combination, then fell again on two subsequent combinations. The 15-year-old waited two minutes to start her jumps, which in theory raises their value, but in this competition she seemed sapped of energy. The crowd rallied behind her in sympathy after the second fall, clapping rhythmically to urge her on.
All Kostner had to do was skate clean. But her nerves showed when she doubled a triple lutz. And she fell on a triple salchow late in the program. All of her artistic prowess couldnB次元官网网址檛 make up for the errors in what could be her last world championship B次元官网网址� in her home country no less.
With files from The Associated Press
The Canadian Press
